What earns distribution

Strip away the formatting folklore and a short list of things actually moves LinkedIn distribution.

Dwell time

How long someone stops. This is the mechanism behind most of the advice that seems superstitious: the "see more" break, short paragraphs, the slow reveal. They work because they extend the time on the post.

The version that ages well: write something that rewards the time. The version that does not: manufacture friction to extend dwell on something with nothing behind it. The feed is increasingly good at telling those apart, because people who expand and then leave produce a worse signal than people who never expanded.

Comments, and especially replies

Comments outweigh reactions considerably, and your replies to them count. A post you reply to for an hour will outperform an identical post you abandon. This is the highest-leverage habit available, and it costs nothing but attention.

Quality matters: one-word comments are recognised for what they are.

The external link question

Posts with links out of LinkedIn reach less than posts without. This is well established and unsurprising — LinkedIn prefers to keep attention. The debate is about what to do:

• Link in the first comment. Widely used, works less well than it used to, and adds a step for the reader.
• Link in the post, accept the cost. Correct when the click is the point.
• No link at all. Correct when the post is the point.

The mistake is being ideological about it. If a post exists to drive registrations, take the reach penalty and put the link where people can find it.

Specificity

The strongest non-mechanical factor. Named numbers, real situations, a genuine opinion someone could disagree with. Generic professional advice is infinitely available and the feed treats it accordingly.

The test: could a competitor publish this word for word? If yes, it will not travel.

What actively hurts

Engagement bait ("agree?", "comment YES"), reposting without commentary, posting several times a day, and hashtag stuffing — which LinkedIn has deprecated in relevance anyway.

What trips people up

• Copying a viral post's structure without its substance.
• Never replying to comments, which wastes the reach you earned.
• Treating the link penalty as a rule rather than a trade.

You have got this when

You can look at a draft and say what would make someone stop, and what would make someone disagree.